Raven Cliff Falls

Located just northwest of Helen, Ga. off the Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway is the trailhead to Raven Cliff Falls. This trail, which is surrounded by the Raven Cliffs Wilderness Area inside the Chattahoochee National Forest, is a 5 mile out-and-back hike with plenty of attention-grabbing scenery along the way. The hike follows Dodd Creek 2.5 miles upstream to the 80-foot Raven Cliffs formation where the rock is split by the falls in a series of cascades. The creek initially drops 60 feet before splashing over some ledges and finally creating a quite deep pool at the base of the falls. From the pool, the water flows down another 20 feet to continue Dodd Creek back towards the trail's eastern terminus. Hikers rarely lose visual contact with the creek and are treated to multiple other cascades and falls as they make their way. Several of these are rather large and present an excellent opportunity to take a swim or at least cool off with a splash of mountain water before finishing the trek.

After looking for a while, I finally decided that I would use this simple day hike as a way to try and hopefully get my little sister into the whole "outdoor thing" and also to spend a little quality time doing something that didn't revolve around soccer for once. Plus, I hadn't hit the trail in a while and really didn't feel like going it alone this go round. The last time I tried to take Kalley on a hike, I thought for sure that she would never speak to me again. We did about 7 miles on the Pine Mountain Trail, which I didn't think would be too difficult, but I soon discovered that my assumption was quite wrong. With a sore knee, wet shoes, and a dog that would not behave either on or off the leash, my sister left Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park with the assured resolution that we would never return to this, or any other such place of torture again. So it was to my surprise that she rather quickly agreed to go with me to check out this northern Georgia trail. With temperatures forecast for the lower 80s, and only a slight chance of rain, the weather was about as perfect as it could have been. The drive to the trailhead took us about 2.5 hours from Peachtree City, but it was a pleasant revelation to discover that there was no fee for parking or for access to the trail, something the USFS frequently does not let happen.

Almost immediately after beginning our hike, we saw a huge campsite off to the the right, approximately 200 yards from the parking area. Part of Dodd Creek flowed through it, and someone had even fashioned a rope swing which hung from a branch reaching out over the water. Campsites were abundant along most of the trail, and nearly all had flat spots for tents, fire rings, and were within 20 yards of the stream. The trail was very easy and relaxing, never less than 3-4 feet wide, and almost constantly shrouded in a canopy of mountain laurel and hardwoods. Overall, the hike in gains only about 650 feet of elevation, so it's a nice stroll, even for the most amateur hiker. It was exactly what I was hoping for: easy to navigate, yet full of beautiful scenery. Along the way, we also observed several cascades and other waterfalls (one in particular was over 50 feet high) which offered plenty of play spots and places to cool off. If I'm honest, a few of these places were more entertaining than the actual falls for which the trail is named. It didn't take us long to reach the western end of our route.

I am apparently notorious for my long stride and fast hiking pace, so it was nice to see Kalley maintain pace and reach Raven Cliff Falls in only an hour and a half. For me, this was a rather anticlimactic zenith. As much as it is touted for it's impressive beauty and wonder, the falls were little more than a trickle this day, no doubt due to a recent lack of rain in the area, and I was worried that I'd hear something like, "Geez. We came all that way for this?" However, I was happy to see my sister kick off her shoes and socks, and wade out into the pool at the base of the falls, happily checking out the water-created rock formation in front of us. While she was in the pool, I scrambled up the rock scree another 50 feet to see if I could find a way onto the top of the cliffs. I gave up after minimal effort and headed back down. As we were debating about how many snakes were living in the pool, I noticed that many of the surrounding rocks were beginning to become speckled with dark spots. Initially, we figured it was just overspray from the waterfall, but we quickly remembered that the weather forecast called for a 40% chance of isolated thunderstorms, and so we soon began to head back to the car.

At some point not long after, Kalley decided that she would run the rest of the way back and took off...with my dog Guinness fast behind. There I was, hiking at 2,000+ foot of elevation, with a potential thunderstorm looming overhead, and both my sister and my dog had left me in the proverbial "dust". A smile slyly crawled across my face though, as I soon realized that I had the car keys and both rain jackets. Sweet.

On her way back, Kalley had apparently taken the time to scratch the letter K into the path at various intervals just to let me know she was alive and on the right path. Very Hansel and Gretel-ish. She was having fun though, and that was the whole point. Because the trail is nearly all downhill on the way back to the parking lot, I covered the distance much more quickly. What took an hour and a half to hike in, took only 45 minutes to hike out. The rain ended up holding off, yet I still returned to the car to find Kalley standing there soaked not from the rain, but rather from the sweat of running that distance through mountain humidity. It was a good day, and time had been well spent. On the drive home, I asked her if she would be interested going camping with us sometime. She replied with a yes. I knew my mission was accomplished.